One of the most important tools for lead generation and sales conversion is the landing page.
Landing pages are standalone web pages that are disconnected from your website’s navigation. Their purpose is to present focused content that aims to convince visitors to act, whether that’s to buy a product or service, sign up for something, download something and so on.
The average conversion rate for a landing page is 9.7 percent but can vary by industry. The more effective your landing page, the higher your conversion rate as well. Remember, landing pages do enable you to direct specific users to specific content, and that targeting can help convert for the sale.
The following are 10 tips to help create more effective landing pages to boost your business.
Don’t forget the basics
Remember that the point of your landing page is to share information in a focused way that will help the visitor take an action.
So, you don’t want to forget any of the basics:
- Headline (any sub-headline is optional)
- Brief description of the offer or product that emphasizes its value in a clear way
- At least one relevant image
- Lead-capturing form to collect a visitor’s information
In addition, you can add other supporting elements, such as testimonials or security badges that can act as social proof for visitors.
Less is more
Concise content is generally a great rule of thumb for any digital marketing channel, but this is especially true with landing pages.
The more cluttered your landing page, the more distracted, confused or overwhelmed your visitors will be.
Embrace white space where appropriate and keep both your text and images as simple as possible.
Emphasize the value
While you want to keep your content concise, don’t forget to emphasize the value of what you’re offering landing page visitors.
You can highlight the benefits in a brief paragraph with a few bullet points, which makes the text much more skimmable for visitors.
Emphasize how your product, service, download or other offer addresses a specific problem, need or interest that matters to your target audience.
Remove any website navigation distractractions
When visitors arrive on your landing page, you want to keep them there (and keep them focused on the action you want them to take).
Full navigation panels could distract users and boost the possibility for them to abandon the page before converting.
Remove (or don’t install) website navigation from your landing page.
Confirm that your headline matches your CTA
More than likely, visitors are arriving on your landing page because of a call-to-action (CTA) that’s sending them there.
If your landing page’s headline differs in any way from what is said in your CTA, then you risk confusing and losing those visitors.
For example, if you’re asking visitors to go to your landing page for a “free offer,” but there’s actually some sort of catch when they get there, you’ll lose their trust and their future business.
Make sure that everything you say is consistent throughout the customer journey. In other words, the ad should reflect the landing page, and the landing page should reflect the ad that’s driving visitors to it.
Always encourage social sharing
By including social media sharing buttons (and even an email forwarding button if that makes sense for your audience), you’re enabling visitors to easily spread the word about what you have to offer.
To limit clutter, you can only have the buttons for the relevant social media platforms your audience actually uses (versus every possible platform).
Remember that even if a visitor doesn’t purchase from you, it’s always possible that someone from his or her network might. Make it easy for visitors to share on your behalf.
Consider your lead-capture form
When it comes to lead-capture forms on your landing page, only ask for the most important information that you actually need from visitors.
The fewer fields on your form, the higher the conversion rate because the more work that is implied to the visitor, the less likely he or she will do that work.
Of course, you want to balance this with the type of information that you do need to know to better qualify the leads you’re generating.
One way to give the appearance of a shorter lead-capture form is to tweak the vertical spacing in between the fields. It’s subtle, but it can make a difference.
To give that little push to convert on your lead-capture form, think about being more specific on your submit button than saying “Submit.” What is the action they’re actually taking by submitting the form? Use that for the wording on the submit button. Examples include:
- Get Your Free eBook
- Subscribe To Our Newsletter
- Try A Week Free
Also, the bigger and more colorful your submit button, the more “clickable” it is.
Embed rich media on your landing pages
Rich media includes GIFs, videos and interactive images. Using rich media will help your landing page stand out to visitors.
But proceed with caution. Using too much rich media or using file types that might not load properly on all devices could actually work against you and your goals.
If rich media isn’t an option for any reason, consider the overall design of your landing page. The better the design, the more compelling your landing page.
Confirm that your landing page is mobile-friendly
At least 274.7 million people in the U.S. accessed the internet through a mobile device. This means that about 83 percent of Americans are mobile internet users.
And mobile internet usage is only growing. Gone are the days when we can assume that most website visitors are viewing your website on a full browser.
Mobile optimization is about making sure that visitors who access your website through mobile devices have an outstanding experience that’s customized to their device. The most successful mobile optimization should feel seamless for the mobile user.
There are a few ways to optimize your website’s user experience:
- Responsive site: It follows the same HTML and CSS as your full website but renders the same on all devices, adjusting to the screen size.
- Dynamic-serving site: Its server will respond with different HTML and CSS on the same URL, depending on what device is being used by the visitor.
- Separate HTML site: It is an entirely different HTML website that is a modified version of your site and is only served to mobile and tablet users.
Fun fact: You can actually check the mobile-friendliness of your website with Google Webmaster Tools. Once you submit your site, you can navigate to Search Traffic and then Mobile Usability to see any errors that affect your mobile optimization (as well as suggested fixes).
Check out our 16 tips for a mobile-friendly website that you can’t ignore.
Proof all copy
For all the work that can go into a landing page, don’t let a silly misspelling ruin it all in the eyes of visitors.
Any spelling, grammar or other mistakes (like broken links) will all look unprofessional and turn off your visitors from seizing your offer.
Don’t just rely on yourself to re-read your copy or basic spellcheck. Sometimes, something can be worded in a way that’s confusing or misleading without you realizing it. Ask a colleague (or two) to read, review and test all aspects of your landing page before it goes live so that you can confirm that it will be as effective as possible.
In conclusion
Landing pages are a powerful tool to drive lead generation and even sales. But this is only possible when you take the time to make sure that your landing page is the best representation of your brand and the offer you’re making to visitors.
Need a comprehensive platform that enables landing-page creation as well as a leveling up of your digital marketing process? Consider DailyStory. Our application features automation, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.
